abertis directors' vote to buy OHL becoming the world's #1 toller

abertis' board of directors have formally approved the acquisition of OHL's nine toll road concessions in Brazil some 2,000 miles or 3226km of pike, making the company the world's largest in tolling worldwide, it says. In the transaction abertis (51%) and Brookfield Infrastructure (49%) will acquire Partícipes de Brasil SL, which is 60% owned by OHL Brasil.

In a complex set of stock buys OHL will own around 15% of abertis when the transaction closes, expected before the end of this year.

We quote but won't pretend to understand: "the three significant shareholders of abertis (la Caixa, CVC and OHL) have committed to both Brookfield Infrastructure and abertis not to buy abertis shares, except under some specific circumstances, until 31 December. abertis has in turn made the same commitment to Brookfield Infrastructure of not to buy its own shares."

abertis' revenue is expected to climb some €800m, $1100m and EBITDA €500m, $700m from 2013 onward.

Spanish tollroads which were the origin of abertis business will be reduced proportionately by the Brazilian acquisitions to 27% of its revenue.

abertis says that at market prices this transaction implies an Enterprise Value/EBITDA multiple of approximately 7.0x, and meets the Company's return criteria.

Both Abertis and OHL are Spain-based international companies that specialize in longterm toll concessions.

NOTE: 'abertis' forgoes the conventional initial capitalization of its name.